Hannah Storm made her return to TV after a disfiguring fire accident for ABC's coverage of the Rose Bowl parade Jan. 1, with co-host Josh Elliott. / AP

by Michael Hiestand, USA TODAY Sports

by Michael Hiestand, USA TODAY Sports

Before working ESPN's Sunday morning SportsCenter, Hannah Storm spent 50 minutes in makeup. It wasn't exactly relaxing, given the makeup brushes "felt like a sand blaster."

No wonder. It was Storm's first ESPN appearance since a Dec. 10 propane grill accident that left her with first- and second-degree burns on her face, hands, chest and neck.

"It's funny because with the TV part, because I've been at it so long, it just took me the first highlight to get right back into it," Storm said after a revivifying three-hour nap Sunday afternoon. "But from a physical standpoint, it was challenging."

Cameras had to be moved closer so she could read scripts because her eyes are still recovering from the singing to her corneas in the accident. She can't quite use her hands well enough to type, so she just uses her thumbs on her PDA to write her lead-ins. She says some burned areas still "get hot," so the studio's air conditioning was turned up.

"It makes me kind of emotional to talk about it," Storm said.

Storm, who'll work Monday's 9 a.m. ET SportsCenter, then take the rest of the week off, says she was "nervous" about her return Sunday.

"I had a lot of anxiety. I wanted to see if I could do it and not go crazy," she said. "But it was rough. And an hour into the show, I was wiped."

But she's thrilled about the big picture: "I'm so crazy lucky."

And able to joke a little. Because her hair caught on fire, she went on-air Sunday with hair extensions, meaning that "I've officially joined the ranks of Hollywood."

Albeit very accidentally.

Rushing to fix dinner at her Connecticut home Dec. 10, Storm turned off her propane grill and then turned it back on. Propane, she has learned the hard way, "is heavier than air and it pooled around the grill" -- so turning the grill back on produced "a flash flame, a fire ball like you'd see in a movie."

She saw the flame, then instinctively closed her eyes -- which, doctors told her, probably saved them -- and "then my chest and head caught on fire. It was a big explosion."

She says her neighbor thought a tree had fallen on his house.

Storm never thought the injuries were life-threatening. But, "I did think they were career-threatening," in a job where appearance counts.

After the accident, Storm's 16 year-old daughter Hannah called 911. Storm was already thinking about career implications when the first responders arrived, and she asked them if her face would recover.

"It was dramatic. My face was misshapen," she said. "You could see the path of the flames up my neck. I was very disfigured. ... But even though I looked really rough, I didn't panic."

She wasn't up for much talking or leaving the house. Her husband, NBC/Golf Channel announcer Dan Hicks, rearranged his schedule to be home more. But Storm set a goal of keeping her scheduled appearance hosting ABC's Jan. 1 Rose Bowl Parade mainly because her three daughters -- ages 11, 14 and 16 -- had looked forward to making the trip.

So what now? Storm will work SportsCenter shows Sunday and Monday and hopes to do long-scheduled segments from New Orleans in the week leading up to the Super Bowl.

And she's serious about this: Given Super Bowl Sunday is one of the heaviest grill days of the year, she wants everybody to remember to wait at least 15 minutes before restarting propane grills.

"So many people just don't understand how dangerous igniting a grill can be," she said.

How her recovery will be is less clear-cut. "I don't know what to expect. It's unlike anything I've experienced. You feel funny. The outside is starting to heal, and now I'm almost feeling like I'm starting to heal from the inside out."

She knows she'll need patience. "It's very traumatic and the trauma lingers. The exhaustion lingers, and it's pervasive."

But again, let's remember the bottom line. "I can't tell you," Storm said, "how fortunate I am to be able to still do TV."